“What…? No!” he sputtered. “I mean, yeah, I owe the guy a lot of money. Sure. What do you think I’m doing working here? You think I like having my ass pinched by handsy old ladies? Hell no! But I didn’t steal from the guy!”
She put her hands on her hips. “So you don’t have his little black book? Or his car?”
“If I had Marco Toscano’s car, I sure as hell wouldn’t have taken the bus here tonight! I was at Chubbies last night, open to close. You can check my time sheet. It’s hanging on the wall back at the club.”
A metallic snap echoed behind us. A cool voice said, “I hope for your sake you’re telling the truth about that.”
All three of us stiffened at the cock of Charlie’s magnum. Pokey’s eyes squeezed shut and his voice cracked. “I swear to god, I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t take anyone’s book, and I didn’t steal anyone’s car. Please don’t arrest me.”
Vero gaped at him. “You thinkhe’sa cop! Just because he’s a guy?”
“Because he has a gun! And by the sound of it, it’s a really fucking big one. So unless this guy tells me his name is Detective Versace, I’ll err on the side of caution, thank you very much.”
“Are you two finished playing detective?” Charlie asked.
“Are you finished being an asshole?” Vero sassed.
“Turn around.” We both raised our hands and slowly turned around, until we were staring into the mouth of Charlie’s revolver. “What’s this business about Marco Toscano having the car?”
Vero and I glanced at each other. How much of the conversation had Charlie heard? And, more important, how had he known where to find us?
“Marco’s people took the car from us,” I said with a cautious glance at Pokey, afraid of saying too much. “Now Marco’s disappeared, and we have no idea who has it. Whoever has the car most likely took Marco’s ledger, too.”
“I swear to god, it wasn’t me,” Pokey said, wrenching his neck to see over his shoulder. “I had nothing to do with any of this.”
Charlie swung the revolver, aiming it at the back of Pokey’s head. “Then I guess we won’t be needing you anymore.”
“Wait!” I cried. “We don’t know that.”
Charlie scowled at me, like he was torn between listening to reason and shooting Pokey just to spite me. “Fine. But unless you want Nick finding out what you two have been up to tonight, you’re going to walk out of this alley right now and get in my fucking car. And neither one of you had better give me any trouble.” Charlie gestured impatiently through the gap between the buildings. Hands above our heads, we started walking toward his Cadillac, leaving Pokey in the alley.
“How the hell did you find us anyway?” Vero asked as Charlie’s shoes crunched softly behind us.
“You assume I can’t just because I’m retired? You’re not as cagey as you think,” he mocked us, clucking his tongue. “I might be old, but it wasn’t that hard.”
“I hear they make medications for that.”
“Keep moving,” he said, jabbing his gun into her back.
I flinched at a loud crash. Vero and I whirled in time to see Charlie crumple, his gun clattering to the ground amid a spray of broken glass.
Pokey stood behind him, wielding a broken bottle of Jim Beam. Steele’s handcuffs dangled from one of his wrists. He tossed the neck of the bottle aside, looking like he might be sick. “Tell me I didn’t just brain a cop!”
Vero kicked Charlie’s gun out of reach as Charlie groaned, struggling to come around. “You didn’t,” she assured him. “Technically, he’s retired.”
He stifled a cry and began pacing the alley, his bare, oily bottom shining like a target in the dark. “Oh, shit.Oh shit oh shit oh shit,” he chanted to himself as he worked the second cuff free.
“How’d you do that?” Vero asked as he thrust them at her.
“I’m covered in baby oil!” he snapped.
She considered that and wiped the cuffs on her shirt. She closed the metal loops until they made a full circle and opened again with a series of soft clicks. Charlie moaned as she rolled him onto his side and snapped the restraints around his wrists.
I frisked his pockets for his phone and keys. Vero retrieved his gun and tucked it into her jeans. “A little help here?” she asked, stooping to grab Charlie under his armpits.
Francis raised his hands. “I draw the line at abducting cops.”
“I told you, he’s retired.”
